The time-frame between Thanksgiving and New Years contains some of the highest levels of drinking during the entire year. It's believed these excesses of drinking nearly double from normal use for many and tend to be highest on Thanksgiving Eve, Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, when people know they have the next day off.
In addition, depression and anxiety worsen during the holidays and are typically triggered, again, by the increased levels of stress. Holiday parties at work and with friends, as well as gatherings with family who have the potential of pushing one another's buttons during family gatherings, all can trigger even higher levels of stress than normal and lead to increased levels of depression and anxiety. These events are worsened in the presence of Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is more prominent in the winter months, but they can also worsen already treated mental health conditions which can become destabilized under the stress of the holiday rush.
Relapse prevention plans are the key to getting through the holidays. That goes for both addictive issues and mental health issues. Relapse prevention is how "high risk" situations are prevented and how stressful situations that can trigger a return to either abusive levels of addictive behavior, or situations that can trigger depression or anxiety, are prevented.
With relapse prevention, one of the first things to determine and know about yourself is what your triggers are, and then to have key stress reducing plans and techniques in place for coping with the emotions surrounding these situations before they get a chance to tip the scales and heighten the risk for relapse.
Below you will find some helpful links from Psych Central to help you along your path to creating your own holiday relapse prevention plans for addiction and mental health concerns. Whatever you do, don't put it off. It's always worth planning in advance to keep yourself on track and find the success you want:
*Tips for Managing Triggers during Addiction Recovery: https://psychcentral.com/addictions/5-tips-for-managing-triggers-during-addiction-recovery#identifying-triggers
*Relapse Prevention: https://psychcentral.com/lib/relapse-prevention#1
*Cognitive Reminders to help you Cope with a Depression Relapse: https://psychcentral.com/depression/the-fear-of-relapse-cognitive-tools
"Today I will not wait for others to see and care; I will take responsibility for being aware of my pain and problems, and caring about myself." ~Meldoy Beattie
Thanks to Tom lpri for the great holiday image, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
